the open air cafe

I love to walk. I especially love to walk to a coffee shop, with Joaquin. Having a destination gives me more spring in my step. If I am left to wander, I wander slowly. I have a total cafe crush on the Monon Coffee Co. in Broad Ripple. They have locally roasted coffee, fresh juice from a juicer and smoothies. They even have a few vegan treats like carrot cake and cookies.
I dream of a coffee shop where all of the goodies are animal and cane sugar free, but it just doesn't exist in Indy yet. I've come up with these muffins to fill in the blank. They travel well, aren't too sweet and are soft and cake like.
Carrot date muffins
1 cup of whole white wheat flour
1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
1/3 cup agave nectar (dark)
1 cup unsweetend soymilk
1 tsp vanilla
4 chopped pitted medjool dates
1 shredded carrot
Preheat to 400.
combine all of your dry indgredients in one bowl and the wet in another. combine the two and add the carrot and the dates. spoon into an oiled muffin tin. this recipe makes nine muffins. fill the empty ones with water for nice soft muffins. bake for 20-25 minutes. remove them from the pan and let them completely cool before eating as those dates can be hot hot hot!

Throw a couple of these in your backpack and when you get your coffee you can sit outside and enjoy a veg-friendly treat too!

I am slowly introducing grains into my babies diet. Wheat is kind of a big question mark as far as allergies go. I seem to feel a bit better when I cut back on it. I almost made these with Bob's Red Mill all purpose Gluten free mix. So far, I haven't noticed any problems like the tell-tale ring around the booty. We shall see.

Back at home we are still working on our fork skills and soaking up this outstanding Spring weather. Joaquin is eating up his veggies and enjoying a few new foods. I've started including some baby friendly crunchy snacks with his lunch. He loves Veggie Sticks. We call them fa fies. That's silly baby speak for french fries. Joaquin is enjoying green beans, half of a muffin with home made pumpkin seed/almond/cashew/macadamia nut butter (thinned a little), fa fies, and scrambled tofu with nutritional yeast. Guess what he went for first? He's no dummy.